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Practicing tips
Rules You Should Follow Quality over quantity When you practice, aim at improving what your not good at - rather than what you are good at. This includes learning something brand new! Spending months learning just one thing will not make you a guitar god. Make every second count, and work on stuff you really suck at. Turn your weakness into your strength. Goals Write down your goals. Your goal for life as a musican. This year. This month. and This week. Start off with the larger goals. This way you can make effective short term goals. That'll help you acheive your long term goals. Practice Every Day Practicing every day helps you develop a habit of praticing. If you take days off, it will be harder to get back into practicing. Also it is good to practice at the same time everyday for the same reasons. The Importance of Breaks It is important to take breaks when practicing. You don't want to wear out your hands, but it is also important you give your brain time to register what you've practiced into muscle memory. Try practicing for fifteen minutes, taking a break, and coming back and it will seem like you are much better then when you left. This is because as you take a break your brain registers fully the information you attained while practicing. Quiet Area Practice without any conflicting noise. All the sound should come from you so you can hear your mistakes, or how good you sound. Don't listen to music while you play unless you are playing along with a song. Also try to avoid distractions such as T.V., computer, ect. Stay In Tune One Problem a lot of beginners have is not properly tuning thier guitar or bass. If you don't have a tuned guitar then it doesn't matter what you play or how you play it, it won't sound the way you want. Pay close attention to your tuning and don't worry about relying entirely on electronic tuners. Some musicians have been playing for decades and use electronic tuners. Make it procedure to ensure a tuned instrument after or before each song. Stay on Track Time management is very important. Make a commitment not tomorrow, or next week but NOW that you will practice what needs to be practiced. Set an agenda, goals, and how long you will practice each day and do it. If you're bad with time management, make guitar a high priority. Keep yourself motivated Everytime I go to a concert, I come back wanting to learn the songs of the artist I just saw. You don't have to see a live performance to motivate yourself. Take a look at some of the amazing guitarists featured in our media sections or search the internet. If your impressed with what you see, then you'll strive to do as well. Study Other Genres DO NOT limit yourself to the genre you prefer. This usually leads to dead ends that can make your playing styles feeling stale. Learn to use the techniques and theories behind other styles, and how you can alter them (If wanted.) to apply to the style you're into playing. You may want to consider learning: New scales/ modes, tunings, types of guitar, ways to hit the strings, and ways to manipulate your sound. Methods Think it Through When you're away from the guitar you can still practice! Think through in your head the muscle movements involved - or move your fingers as you would on your Air Guitar. Reflecting on what you have learned or repeating the mental processes involved with a particular song can definitely improve your playing when you return to the guitar. Brute Repetition Brute repetition, as we here at wiki guitar like to call it is the simplest form of practice. Take a measure, a line, or a song and repeat - until it's perfect. This method tends to be a little boring. Mixed Repetition Jump back and forth from measures, lines, or songs. Be sure to cover everything as well as you would using the Brute Repetition method. Tally Set a number of times you will run through a particular song or segment of a song. Use tallies to keep track and take a break when you have tallied so many times. Works well if you take a break when your done. Work in Parts If a particular song contains an lower(bass) and upper(melody) part, try learning them seperately and then playing together. These are sometimes found in fingerpicked songs. Ask Most musicians you talk to love playing the guitar and are more then willing to pass what they know onto the next generation of rockers. When your out at the guitar shop and you see someone using a technique you want to learn, ask them to show you. Most of the time the only people who won’t do so are people who want money for lessons. If you have a friend who plays, see what they know and vice versa, your combined knowledge can make both of you better musicians.